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Life was great for Ilorek H. Griff. He was getting a great education, had great friends, and had a surprisingly simple job that he really enjoyed. There was only one thing Ilorek lacked: a partner.

His mother was a gryphon, and his father was a vaner horse, making him a rare halfbreed known as a hippogryph. Thanks to his parent's size he was quite large as well, almost eight feet tall and built like an athlete. This served him very well, getting him a job as a bouncer at a local club which was easy and fun since nobody ever challenged him so he basically got paid to stand around and look intimidating for a few hundred bucks a night. He met a lot of interesting people, and it made him more than enough money to pay for his schooling, so he really, really liked his job.

At almost 8 feet tall, Ilorek's size worked well for him professionally, but wasn't good for his social life; at least not his intimate social life.

He tried dating, he tried getting out more, but no matter how many girls or guys he met, the only ones who were capable of handling him were the ones who thought monogamy was a curse word. The only physically viable partners he could find were ones who were more interested in physicality than emotional attachments.

This didn't work well for him because, in spite of his reputation as a bit of a party animal, he was a really reserved, quiet, introspective creature. He was a thinker, to him love was more than just sex, but so few shared his beliefs.

But what else would you expect of a creature so large? Not only was Ilorek massive, but he was well endowed even for his size. Contrary to popular belief, a package that large is not a blessing, it makes most run away in fear.

So Ilorek stopped trying to find a mate, hoping instead that fate would be kind to him and introduce someone to him rather than having him suffer countless disappointments.

He was on his hour break in between shifts, so he decided to take some time to enjoy a few drinks with his back to the bar, keeping an eye on his territory. Even on break he felt it was his responsibility to watch over the patrons, he was protective that way.

"So, anyone interesting show up today?" Ilorek asked the bartender, who was currently wiping the table.

"No more than usual, 'Rek. Pretty slow night I'd say."

Ilorek swished his drink around and took a sip. Normally it was against the rules to drink, even between shifts, but he seemed to have an immunity to alcohol. It took a gallon of Scotch before he started being tipsy, so a small glass on the rocks was about as potent as a sip of milk. "Well that's good. After all, I think it was the vikings who used the phrase 'may you lead an interesting life' as a wishing of ill fortune. Better to be boring than to be interesting in some cases."

The bartender, a black and grey spotted feline, chuckled. "If you say so."

Ilorek was considering saying something back when a young, female malamute sat down beside him and sighed, letting her head drop onto the bar. "mmrrph." she grumbled into her arms.

"Uh, everything okay?" Ilorek asked.

She just shrugged.

Most people would leave it at that, but for all Ilorek knew, maybe there was a fight, or perhaps she broke up and there's about to be a scuffle, or perhaps.... "That's not an answer. Is everything alright?" he insisted.

She raised her head and laughed. "Oh, everything is alright, I'm just bored here. I keep telling my friends 'I'm not interested', or 'I don't do clubs', but do they listen? Noooooo!" She howled quietly.

Ilorek leaned back and sized her up. "So...no conflicts?"

She waved him off. "Naww, no worries mate. I'm just bitching, is all. Pay me no mind." She laid her head back down and sighed deeply. "Maybe we can go home soon, I can't be out all night."

Ilorek shrugged and turned back towards the dance floor. The rhythmic pumping of the music was relatively quiet tonight, and only a few people were dancing, most were sitting in booths and eating, or drunk at the bar.

"Hey, you want a drink? Maybe some happy juice will loosen you up a bit." Ilorek offered.

She scoffed a bit, her head still resting on the bar. "No, I don't drink. Thanks anyway though."

"I understand. Not many people come here unless they plan on drinking, even I took up the habit after many years of telling myself the same thing."

"Well I'm not you, thankfully." She said bluntly.

Ilorek cringed and moved one seat away from her, somewhat offended. "Jeez, fine..."

She raised her head and reached out to Ilorek, "Oh no, not like that, you don't need to be like that, I just mean I really, REALLY don't want to drink. You're fine, just...kay, I'll go back to moping now." sighed and lowered her head again.

But he didn't move, he remained a barstool away. "So, uh, I guess it'd be kind of silly to ask if you come around often, eh?"

"Yeah, pretty silly." she responded.

The two of them sat in silence for a while. Ilorek calmly sipped at his drink as best a beak could, and the young Malamute female lay there, still. It would be awkward for Ilorek, except he dealt with lonely patrons all the time, nothing to get worked up about.

"Look, sorry for being a bitch..." she spoke up, interrupting the silence.

"Naw it's cool, you were just born that way. Not your fault." He grinned as he took another sip.

"Was...was that a joke?" She teased.

He just shrugged gently. "Hm, I guess it was. Was it funny?"

She nodded. "Yeah, a little. So, uh, what do you do around here. You don't look to excited either. Inquiring minds want to know."

Ilorek just shrugged. "Actually I work here, I'm just on break."

"What do you do? Bouncing?"

He nodded. "Yep, how could you tell?"

She raised an eyebrow and looked him up and down. "Well, you're easily twice my size, for one. Built like a football player. I highly doubt you'll be getting those claws of yours in a glass to clean it, and I'm pretty sure you lack the finesse to be a DJ..." She trailed off. "Get my drift?"

"Suuure, yeah. Makes sense." He leaned in, "Look..." he paused, indicating he wanted her name.

"Natasha."

"Look Natasha, I have to go back to work. Door's not gonna guard itself. Pleasure talking to you." He threw back the rest of his drink then nodded to her. "I hope you can find it in yourself to have some fun tonight, I wouldn't want this all to be a waste."

She watched as he got up to leave, training her pale blue eyes on his equine tail that poked out of his cargo shorts. Nice rump. She thought to herself.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful for Ilorek. Usually when he was on duty people behaved, but tonight was especially tame. It was one of the slowest days he'd seen in months. Less than a dozen people were dancing and there probably wasn't even 50 people there tonight.

All in all a pretty boring day.

After a few more hours, his shift was up, so he said his goodbyes, had the cook make him a sandwich, and he was on his way. But as soon as he left the front door, he was greeted by a perky voice.

"I never got your name, mr Hippogryph." the malamute Natasha piped up.

"That's because I never gave it to you." he said gruffly.

She followed in step behind him. "Well don't you think it's about that time you remedied that? You know my name, it's time to reciprocate."

He just kept walking.

"Come on, don't gimme the silent treatment, okay, I'll guess. Horsebird? Is that your name? Your mom would be pretty silly to call you Horsebird. I can just imagine her laughing as she tells your dad that."

Ilorek sighed. "Look, I know what you're doing, but I'm not really interested."

"Interested in what?"

"You're flirting with me, and I'm not really available." He grumbled.

"How are you not available? You can flirt without wanting to get into someone's pants, so whether you have a girlfriend or not is irrelevant. So what's your name?" She stepped ahead of him and started walking backwards, facing him the whole time.

This was the first time Ilorek really got a good look at her eyes, which were a shade of blue so light they were almost white. Not many species had that, not even amongst the huskies and malamutes he'd met. He was going to comment, but stopped himself. "Look Natasha, it's 2AM and I have school in the morning. I really don't have time for flirty games."

"Ooh, school? What school? What course? How old are you?" She almost howled with every 'oooo' sound, something that vaguely amused Ilorek.

"Where are your friends? Did you just make them up as some elaborate flirtation ruse?" He accused, ignoring her questions.

"Naww, they went home early. I stuck around so I could catch you at the end of your shift."

"You do realize that sounds awfully creepy, right?"

She shrugged, still walking backwards. "Under normal circumstances it would be, but you're different."

He scoffed. "Sounds like a stalker to me."

"Nono, let me explain...." she put her hands on his chest to stop him. "Give me a few minutes to convince you."

He looked down at her paws, which she had pressed flat against his chest. "You have one minute, if I listen, will you go away?"

She backed off and nodded. "Yep. Okay, so I'm sitting there with my friends, eating dinner, having an okay time, right? Well they decided to go dancing and I really hate dancing, I don't care how floofy my tail is, it doesn't shake itself very well, so I got bored. I saw you sitting over here, staring at the dance floor like a hawk. Now, I see a certain glimmer in your eyes, the kind that a mother has looking over her pups or chicks or whatever, I can tell you're either watching someone special or you're just the kind that doesn't like conflict. Well, I kept watching, and the people on the dance floor changed entirely, so it had to be protective, you weren't watching anyone in particular-"

"So you decided to hit on me after figuring out I was single?" he interrupted.

"No, let me finish. So I continued watching, and I noticed more about you. The way you unbutton the top few on your shirt tells me you're kind of adventurous but still reserved. The way you sipped at that scotch told me you had to pace yourself but you still wanted a drink, and your eyes looked very intelligent. I figured you were more than just a bouncer, and I'm right, you're in school. University, I imagine?"

"You still sound like a stalker to me." he repeated,still ignoring her questions.

"Well no, you interested me. I'm not interested in the club/dating scene, but you interest me. Honestly, I want to get to know you. I get this strong impression you have an interesting story to tell. I don't want to get in your pants, I don't want to psychoanalyze you, I don't want to piss you off, I just want to have an opportunity to get to know you."

"What, are you a psychologist or something?"

"In training. I'm in school for it." She nodded. "Pre-med Freud! So, your name? Maybe I can visit sometime and we can talk?"

"So I'm just a test subject to you? Sorry dear, I appreciate your honesty and tenacity, but I really gotta get home to sleep, I really, REALLY don't have time to talk about my life."

"Then give me your name and address, and I'll come see you one day."

"Why would I do that?"

Natasha shrugged. "If you don't I'll just follow you home."

Ilorek blinked. "More and more like a stalker with each passing second. Does this ever actually work on others? I mean, by all means I should call the police after a comment like that."

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "No, of course it doesn't work, I've never said that to anyone before. Look, I'm not going to follow you home, but I could, and you'd never know! I'm like a Freudian Ninja!"

"Your fur is white and light grey, I highly doubt that. And what's a Freudian Ninja? Make them cum so fast they didn't even know they were fucked?"

"Is that another joke? You seem to be full of them tonight."

"Was it funny?"

"Yeah, a little."

Ilorek sighed. It was clear at this point she wasn't going away, and he knew deep down inside that he was just playing hard to get. Based on her analysis of him, he was sure she read him like a book. Ah fuck it. He mused to himself. "Fine, Natasha. My name is Ilorek H. Griff. Do you have a number I could call you at?"

She raised her eyebrow. "Ilorek H. Griff? Damn, that's almost as bad as Horsebird. I want you to know I was only kidding about the Horsebird thing."

"Yes, I gathered as much." Ilorek stepped forward, but she stopped him.

"Well you need my number first, sheesh!" She quickly got out a pen and paper from her pocket and jotted down her numbers, finished up with a smiley face and some hearts. "here ya go, I'm done class at noon tomorrow. My afternoon's free."

Ilorek took the piece of paper gently. "Do you always have a pad of paper and a pen in your pocket?"

"When I'm out, yeah. I take notes on a lot of things. Helps me organize my brain." She waved her paw around her head. "You know how it is. So, is tomorrow good?"

He paused a moment, "I'm done school at five, I don't work till ten."

"Excellent!" she exclaimed, then turned to leave. "Oh, and by the way, you play one of the best games of 'hard to get' I've ever seen. I'm telling you, I KNOW you have a hell of an interesting story for me. Can't wait to hear it. Ciao!" She waved as she walked away, and now it was Ilorek's turn to focus his gaze on her swishing tail.

Damn, she's wrong about that tail. He thought to himself. Nice rump!